Federation, FIA issued notices in Imran’s bail plea

Lawyer replies in negative when SC asks if PTI chief showed cipher before it was declassified

ISLAMABAD:

Accepting the bail application of PTI Chairman Imran Khan in the cipher case, the Supreme Court on Wednesday issued notices to the federation and Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) seeking their replies on the matter.

A three-member bench, led by Justice Sardar Tariq Masood, and including Justice Yahya Afridi and Justice Ayesha Malik, heard the bail plea.
Senior lawyers Salman Safdar and Hamid Khan represented the PTI chairman.

As the hearing began, Justice Masood remarked that it was for the first time that the defence lawyers were having errors in the trial rectified by the courts.
“Usually, they remain silent in the beginning and later challenge the court verdicts on the basis of those errors,” he added. The PTI chief is being tried in the cipher case under the Official Secrets Act inside the Adiala Jail. The cipher referred to a document Imran waved in a rally in Islamabad in March 2022, claiming that it was the evidence of a “foreign conspiracy” against his government.

Read ‘Missing cypher’ comes to haunt PTI top leadership

The lawmakers the National Assembly ousted Imran from power through a no-confidence motion in April that year. The PTI chief was arrested in August this year following his conviction in the Toshakhana [gift repository] case. Later, he was arrested in the cipher case and his trial started in jail.
A day earlier, the IHC ruled that the trial in jail by a special court was illegal.

 During the SC proceedings on Wednesday, Hamid Khan requested the court for adjournment, pleading that the IHC had given a decision on his client’s intra-court appeal, which he wanted to review thoroughly. The court accepted his request and allowed the lawyer to amend his appeal in the light of the new IHC decision.

During the arguments presented by Safdar, Justice Afridi asked if the cipher was a secret document or not. The lawyer replied that the cipher was not a secret document after it was declassified. He also replied in the negative to a court query about if Imran had showed the cipher before it was declassified.
Justice Masood inquired did waving the cipher in public and disclosing its contents fell under the category of communication.

Read more Cypher copy ‘missing’ from PM House records

The PTI lawyer explained that once the cipher was declassified, the document no longer remained a secret. Safdar added that the provisions applied to the cipher case pertained to crimes like espionage but the investigation into the matter had not revealed where such an activity had taken place or if it had benefited an enemy country.

Justice Afridi noted that primarily the allegation was not about the missing copy of the cipher but about making its text public. Justice Ayesha asked when the cipher was with the Foreign Office, then what was needed to be recovered from the accused. During the proceedings, Justice Masood pointed out that bail was not granted on the first hearing of a case.

He added that an application of the co-accused in the case, PTI Vice Chairman Shah Mahmood Qureshi, would be taken up when it was scheduled for hearing. The hearing of the case was later adjourned indefinitely.